A New Beginning
by BFreak
Summary: It's the year of 2009, and Ichimutsu tries to survive on her own to prove to her cousin Akira that she can survive by herself in the wilderness for more than a day. She manages to pull it off, but that will change her life forever because of the Sohmas.
1. Prologue

Prologue

My name is Ichimutsu Karaguwa. I'm 16 years old and I live in Tokyo. Oh, before I forget, I have extremely light brown hair and brown eyes. Not many people knows about this, but I'm one of the very few who knows about a forest just a forest just outside the city. Also, the schooling system here is different from other towns. First through sixth graders goes to elementary, seventh and eighth in middle, and nineth through twelveth in high school. Of course, I'm in tenth grade, soon to go into eleventh grade. Many people asked me when I went to America as an exchange student if Japan's schooling system and schooling year were the same as America's.

Considering the place I was an exchange student for was a place called Westfield, New Jersey, I told them yes and no. The main reason was which grades going into which school was same as Queens in New York, so that was true. As for how the year goes, not the same at all, from what _I_ have seen. America starts in September and ends at June the following year, take two month vacation before moving onto the next grade. Japan was completely different from that. We did it as starting our year at March and ending it on the Feburary the following year before we started a new grade in March again. All our vacations - summer, winter, easter, etc. - were all one week long. In Japan, we also went to school from Monday all the way to Saturday and had to wear school uniforms. The schools started at seven-fifteen o'clock in the morning sharp and ended at three in the afternoon.

But all those are not the point, I guess. The thing is I live in a tent. If you're thinking in the backyard of my family's house, that's just your imagination. I actually "live" in a forest that I was talking about earlier. Why do I live in a tent? I can think of several reasons. One, My friends. They don't know that I'm not living with my mom's side of the family. if I told them, they would only make a fuss about it. Two, my ycousin Akira. He's pretty smart and he's my age. Not oly that, he doesn't think I can survive on my own for more than a day. So far, it's been a week and I'm doing just fine. Of course, I'm working to make money for myself to keep myself going. I'm actually even planning to stay on my own longer. Three, both of my parents died when I was in sixth grade. I was told from the police that one of them got hit by a car pretty badly while the other got shot in the head by their co-workers. Four, I don't have anywhere to go. I can't even ask my friends. The only reason for that is because I don't want to trouble them that much. As for my classmates, they just never bother to help anyone out. Maybe they would for a Sohma in my class, but he's different. I mean, he's the most popular guy in the entire school!

So my life is pretty complicated from trying to hide things even from my friends, but quite ordinary because that's a normal person's life. Right? Only thing is, I didn't think it would get any more complicated, but that wasn't until I met the entire Sohma family. When I met them, my life changed completely and this is my story from the seventh day I was living in my tent in the forest. The day was Saturday - the day that changed my life forever.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When I woke up around six-thirty in the morning, I quickly got myself ready for school withing fifteen minutes. I threw my backpack over my shoulders, grabbed my homework that I forgot to pack and ran out of the tent after quickly grabbing a muffin. Since it took my only ten minutes to get to school on foot, I decided to explore the forest a little and take a different route this time around. But as I took the new path, it was matter of minutes before I started to walk past a house, but more like a mansion that was well hidden in the forest. I walked up without even thinking and looked at the clay ornaments that were lying around outside. By the looks of it, they were even glazed. I picked up a bunny as I cooed, "This is the cutest thing I've ever _seen_!"

Without a warning, a male's voice said in cheerful tone, "Thank you, miss! But do you need help with anything?"

When I looked at the direction where the voice came from, I saw a guy with very shaggy black hair crouched down on the porch, smiling and his face practically matter of inches away from mine. I quickly put the orniment down as I cried out, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to just charge into your property! I was just walking around before I headed for school!"

Suddenly, someone hit the guy on back of his head and I heard a farmiliar male's voice snap, "You better not be scaring her, Ataki! I ain't having one of my classmates run away from me and tell the entire school about it while I'm one of the popular guys at school. As much as that might help a lot in getting out of the popular group, the others will think I live with a psycho and that's the last thing I want!"

I looked up and saw a guy with slightly tan yellow hair with the mixture of orange standing by the door, holding a text book. I recognized him right away and he was Sakura Sohma, the most popular student throughout the entire school and in my class. I quickly bowed as I cried out, "Sohma-kun! Good morning!"

Gently smiling at me, he sweetly said, "No need for that kind of manner around me, Karaguwa-kun! Just think of me as a close friend." He put on his shoes as he added, "I hope my cousin didn't scare you. He may be a novelist, but he's a little kid when it comes to being around others."

I shook my head as I told him, "It's alright. Really! Kind of my fault for charging here in the first place."

The man named Ataki laughed as he told me, "I wouldn't exactly call myself a kid, but I guess I could fit into that description." He stared at me as he asked, "Where do you live, any way?"

"Um," I slowly said as I thought for awhile. "I technically live with my mom's side of the family, but ever since my cousin Akira moved in, I've kind of been living by myself. It's around here, to tell the truth."

Ataki and Sakura were frowning deeply as though they still didn't get it fully before Sakura said, "Let's just head for school, Karaguwa-kun. Don't want to be late and get us both in trouble, although I would take all the blame for you as well!"

As we started to walk, Ataki called, "Be a gentleman to the beautiful young lady, Sakura! I have my ways of finding out! Remember that!"

When we were five minutes away from the house, I asked, "Um, Sohma-kun? Can I ask you a question?" When Sakura looked at me with curiosity, I took in a deep breath before asking, "Why do you live in a forest?"

Sakura looked away as he told me, "Well, we Sohma family have a main house, but we only go there on the New Years. Otherwise, we're all over the place. As for me, that house is as close as I could get to having a close place by school. Also, that entire forest is actually Sohma family's property. If it's people taking walks there, we really don't care. We just don't want them any where near our house." It didn't seem long before we reached the school, but when we arrived at our class door, Sakura held the door open for me and smiled in a flattering way as he told me in his sweet tone, "Go inside first, Karaguwa-kun!" My face burned up a little as I did and most of the girls gasped when they saw Sakura walking in right behind me as he quickly said, "And if you need any help later on, don't be afraid to come and ask me for help. I'll be more than happy to help you out, especially after what Akita might have tried to do to you this morning."

I walked over to my desk and put my bag down and I heard my friends' voices ask in unison, "What did you and the prince talk about on the way to school?"

I looked up and saw my friends Harin and Mutsu standing close to me. Shaking my head, I cried, "Nothing! I just happened meet him on the way to school!" When they looked as though they were suspicious, I cried out in even louder voice, "I'm serious!"

When I slightly looked over my shoulder to Sakura, he called over to Harin and Mutsu, "Hey! Stop torturing Karaguwa-kun, you two! It's just out of coincidence that we bumped into eachother on the way to school!"

I turned back to look at them as I said, "See? Told you that it was just out of the blues!"

When our teacher came in, Harin quickly said, "I'm still getting some weird emotions out of Sohma-kun. Watch out."

She quickly went to her seat as Mutsu messed up my hair a little, saying, "And you watch yourself. If you need any help when you get jumped on or anything, I'm here to help."

The entire class and I took our seats as the class started. Our teacher was a male with dark brown hair with bright blue eyes. He stood still in front of the class and there was that awkward silence that there was every single day at the beginning of the class. Looking around, he snapped, "Alright! We have a new student in our class! Make him feel welcome or you'll have to deal with me, just like when you mess with any other students in this class! Understood?"

Everyone had muttered in unison, "Yes, sensei."

Our teacher looked towards the door as he called, "Hakura! Get in here!"

When a orange hair with brown streaks boy came in, eyes practically closed, he said, "I'm Hakura Sohma."

No one had expected this or have seen this coming, but Sakura cried out, "No! I refuse to be in the same class with _him_!"

The boy named Hakura's eyes grew wide and he dropped his bag as he yelled, "Bring it on, rat! I'll fight you right now, right here!"

Sakura ran up to the front of the classroom, screaming, "Bring it on, cat!"

Our teacher got in between them as he yelled, "Break it up, you two!" While several boys got up and held them down, the teacher asked, "You two know eachother?"

Sakura nodded as he replied, "Hakura and I are cousins! Worst enemies as well!"

Hakura was struggling to get out of the grip of the guys as he yelled, "Let me go! I'm ready to kill the rat! I'm ready to kill him, I tell ya!"

Sakura quickly snapped, "Let me go for a minute. I know how to make him be quiet."

When the guys did as Sakura ordered, Sakura punched Hakura in the face as hard as he could. Our teacher cried out, "Hakura!"

"He'll be obedient for awhile. If he doesn't, I hope you have some leeks and some carrots. If you do, stuff it in his mouth and he'll really be obedient," Sakura informed our teacher as he walked back to his seat.

Hakura got up and sneered at Sakura, "I'll kill you for that later, you rat!" He sat down next to me as he quickly added, "Or maybe I'll just do something to your girlfriend over here."

"What?" Sakura and I cried out in unison.

Hakura stared at me for awhile before he turned to front of the classroom. Hakura practically sneered at me, "I saw you and the rat walking to school together. Don't pretend that you didn't."

Sakura grabbed him by his shirt as he growled, "Don't you dare talk to anyone in this class like that, you stupid cat!"

I quickly grabbed Sakura's arm as I cried out, "Sohma-kun! Please don't go into a fight! At least not during school or when I'm around!"

Sakura looked doubtful for awhile, but he soon smiled at me and put Hakura down, saying, "If that's what put you at ease. I'll just beat him up at home in front of Ataki."

Sakura went back to his seat and sat back down. Hakura looked suprised and the teacher slowly said, "Er, okay, then. Let's start our lesson."

With no break at all, we went through with all different sort of lectures for all the subjects until three in the afternoon. The first thing Hakura shouted was, "School's over so give me a good fight right now, rat!"

Sakura looked annoyed and caught my eyes when I stared at him with a hopeful look. He looked back at Hakura and shook his head, saying, "No. I promised Karaguwa-kun and if I make a promise to anyone about things like this, I keep them. You know why? Because I'm the class president and it's my responsibility to keep the promises I make to these students."

Hakura angrily punched his desk, which broke in two, and jumped out the window and, to my surprise, landed on his feet when it was four stories above the ground. When Sakura was outside as well not too long later, I ran out after him. Smiling, I told him, "Thanks for keeping the promise, Sohma-kun!"

Smiling sweetly at me, he said, "No need to thank me. Really."

Thinking back at some of the things that was said between Sakura and Hakura, I asked, "What did you two mean when you guys called eachother cat and rat?"

Looking away, Sakura told me with a sudden frown, "It's just a family thing. You wouldn't really understand. Nobody would." Once we entered the forest, I tripped on my foot and landed on Sakura by mistake. Next thing I knew, the only thing there were around me were Sakura's clothes, backpack, books and a rat with the same color as Sakura's hair.

In panic, I cried out, "Sohma-kun? Where are you?"

The rat looked away and I thought I heard Sakura's voice say from the mouse, "Ataki is going to kill me for this if he finds out!" The rat looked up at me and said, "It's me, Karaguwa-kun. This is what Hakura meant when he called me a rat." He shivered a little as he asked, "Can you just pick me up and carry all my things and me back to my place? You have to hold my neck, though. Other wise, I'll transform back to my human form and I'll be naked."

I quickly did as he said and when I got to the Sohma family house in the forest, Ataki was waiting by the door. When he saw that Sakura was a rat, he asked me, "Um, you didn't hug him, did you? Or did he become sick or something?"

As my face reddened, I told him, "I acutally tripped and landed on top of him a little."

Ataki stared at me in a grave way as he said, "You might just be in deep trouble now that you know what the Sohma family has been keeping from others for years, miss."


End file.
